Sentimental Journey, Cut Short
by GrandDukeLadyMadameQueen
Summary: Rio Duval (my OC) is stranded in space when she's picked up by the Bebop and crew. They house her while she fices her zipcraft, but after proving to be a worthy fighter she's allowed to join them. (Takes place during the canon timeline, before Ed & Ein leave)


_I do not own Cowboy Bebop or its characters._

"25 bottles of beer on the wall," I sang in a bored, flat tone into the receiver of my communicator. My mouth was dry and my throat felt like sandpaper, but in my last moments I at least wanted to be doing something happy. I paused for a moment and smiled as my stomach whined for the 20th time in the past hour. "How I dowe doin' folks," I said once again to the device in my hand, knowing no one was out there. "Been a while. I ate the last of my rations two days ago, shame I couldn't share it with all my lovely listeners out there." I looked out into the same void of space between Mars and Jupiter that I'd been floating in, without functioning engines, for the last three months. Something big and bright twinkled in the distance - probably a moon. The picked u

p the receiver once again. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. That's what my father always said. I guess it would be pretty cool to be space dust."

 _Beep beep! Beep beep_! There goes my power, I thought. But nothing shut off. I opened my eyes and looked down at my dashboard, which was letting off all the bells and whistles. "What?!" A huge white dot blinked on the radar, approaching fast. I floated up off my seat and pressed against the windshield, squinting at the blackness. There it was. The big, bright, twinkling thing has gotten bigger, no, closer. Someone was out there.

"Shit!" I scrambled to grab my communicator and shouted hopefully into it, "Hello hello is anybody out there? I can see you! Hey listen, please, I've been floating out here without anything, would you help me out? C'mon I know you can hear me, I should be on your radar by now." I leaned back towards my seat, but didn't let go of the button. "God. You're the most beautiful thing I've seen in my life."

"I see you, floater." The gruff male voice filled my cabin, giving my body a jolt of energy.

"You do?! Can you help me out?" I replied excitedly.

There was a long pause. For a second I thought I lost them, or my power finally went, or both, but I didn't lose hope. After a while the voice finally came back. "Alright, on my way."

"Really?! Oh that's great! Thank you so much!" I let go of the receiver and floated back towards the windshield, pushing my face against it. I could see it clearer now. A reasonably large sized ship, a little beat up, but what a sight for sore eyes. I hadn't seen a single soul since that one kind woman passed me a month and a half ago and gave me some food and water. She couldn't take me, her ship was too small. This ship was perfect.

"A Ghoul," the man commented about my ship once I was loaded in the hangar. He appeared out of a doorway on the metal stairs above me; very tall, wearing an old flight suit. He had a bionic left arm, and most of the hair on his head had migrated to his chin. "I didn't catch your name."

"It's just a junker, really," I replied. "Rio Duval, and yours? This is neat ship you have, an old fisher."

"Jet, Jet Black, and you're on the Bebop. Yeah, she's had her prime time already, but we get good use of it."

"We? You've got a crew?"

"I wouldn't call it a crew," he grumbled. "Come in, I'll show you around." I trotted up the stairs and followed him through a couple passages and a storage room, him talking as we went. "What is it you need, fuel?"

"No, I've got plenty of that, actually..." He seemed confused, so I continued. "I don't exactly know what's wrong with it, everything just stopped after I left Mars. I still have to check it out."

"I see. How long were you out there? We're pretty far from Mars," he asked, leading me into a brighter room with a couch, chair, and table.

I thought for a moment. "About three months."

He stopped suddenly and turned to look at me in shock.

"You were floating out there for three months?" said another man, whom I didn't notice had been laying on the couch the whole time.

"How did you survive for so long?" Jet asked.

"I don't know... after the first month all of my food was gone, but a passerby who couldn't take me in gave me food. I ate the last of it two days ago. I guess I'm just lucky," I laughed.

"After three months, luck is all you had left," the other man commented, smoke from his cigarette puffing out with each word.

"I'd say," Jet sighed, now lighting a cigarette of his own. "This is Spike," he gestured to the man, now standing, whose height rivalled Jet's. "Faye is somewhere, you can meet her later."

"Edward smells someone new!" came a high voice. Suddenly a small dog - a corgi - waddled out from behind the couch, followed by a young... boy? No, girl... maybe? Their bright red hair shot out in wild directions, not even obtained my the goggles resting on their head. They looked at me with undaunted curiosity. "New person for Ed. Naaaame?" the androgynous adolescent inquired.

"Ed, this is Rio. She's the one on the radar," said Jet.

"Hello Ed," I greeted with a smile, then mouthed to Jet, "girl?" He nodded. "Who's your dog?"

"Ein!" she exclaimed and ruffled his head, then went back to her business behind the couch.

Peculiar crew, I thought. The fan squeaked slightly overhead as it churned to circulate the smoky air. An awkward silence hung in the air before being cut off by the opening of another door at the top of a stairwell. A woman in yellow shorts and top with a red jacket draped over her arms stepped out.

"You must be Faye. I'm Rio."

She looked at me and then at Jet. "Where did you get her?"

"She was stranded out out there, what else would I do?" he defended.

"Whatever." She sat down lazily on the chair. "Why don't you cook up so food, I'm hungry."

Jet was bothered by that comment. "I'm not your servant, y'know!" Spike and Faye just stared at him expectantly until he put out his cigarette and stormed off to the kitchen.

-skip to dinner-

I quickly learned that I wouldn't be treated to a feast. Of course, I wasn't expecting one, but I wasn't expecting a small meal of various vegetables either. Especially for a crew of three adults, one kid, and a dog. It didn't matter, the food was delicious.

"Sorry I can't make you something more. It's not often that we have more than enough food," Jet told me.

"It's alright, this is just perfect." I continued to eat while the others talked.

"I got a lead on that bank hacker," Faye said, "he's based in a Ganymede slum. When we get there we could catch him, easy."

"There's no we. I'm certainly not helping you," Spike spat.

"Fine, I'll get him and keep the million woolongs to myself."

"One million woolongs!" Jet exclaimed.

"Just about."

"Spike, we could really use that money."

"Alright," he grumbled, setting his plate on the table and laid back on the couch.

"Well I'm done," Faye said even though she had only eaten about half her meal. Ed appeared out of nowhere (she seems to do that a lot) and began eaten what was left on her plate. Faye turned to me, "So Rio. You don't look much younger than me. Why is your hair grey?"

"Oh, that." I absentmindedly touched the short waves on my head. "It hasn't always been like that. I think that happened because I was in space for so long. The right conditions can really mess with your body."

"Tell me about it," Jet mumbled, feeling his smooth head.

"Well how long were you out there?"

"Three months."

"Three months!"

"That's what I said," Spike added.

"Yeah," I continued. "Three months of bland food, stale air, and zero-gravity, stuck inside my tiny zipcraft. My body just couldn't take it and turned my hair grey." I laughed. "I'm not a fan of it, myself."

"Try 54 years in a coma," she sighed.

"Hm." I finished the last of food and, my empty stomach now satisfied, thanked Jet for the meal. Ed disappeared and Faye left, presumably to her room. Spike was asleep, so I offered to help Jet take in the dishes. After that he gave me a place to sleep - a small room in the back with nothing more that an empty chest and bed. It was all I needed, really.

"Help yourself to anything you need. Tomorrow if you want I can take a look at your Ghoul," he said.

"You don't have to do that, I can look at it myself, but thanks anyway." I followed him out into the hallway and went back to my ship. After being inside of the thing so long, it felt weird to look at it from the outside again. Being back under the control of gravity was also taking some getting used to: when I let go of things they don't just float there. I jogged across the hangar and opened the hatch to the cabin. I wanted to get a few things to keep in my room.

"Oh, hey Ed," I said as she suddenly appeared.

"You are from Earth, like Edward."

"That's right. How do you know that?"

"You're in the database!" she sang.

I tensed. _Oh no, not bounty hunters_.

"Your ship is stolen stolen stolen!"

 _Great_. "Alright, you caught me, but I'm not worth your time. I stole my ship from a junkyard, it was basically scrap. The most you'll get from me is a thousand woolongs, maybe." It was the truth. "I'm just not worth it."

"Hmm..." she crawled around my ship and sniffed it. I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Can you keep a secret, Ed?"

"Secret?" Edward asked curiously.

"Yeah, from earthling to earthling. This conversation never happened."


End file.
